Abstract:12,52-difluoro-14,16,34,36,54,56,74,76-octanitro-2,4,6,8-tetraoxa-1,3,5,7(1,3)-tetrabenzenacyclooctaphane (ZXC-20) was synthesized from 2,3,4-trifluoro-nitrobenzene by nitration, cyclization and nitration. The single crystal of ZXC-20·EtOH was obtained by solvent evaporation method, and its single crystal structure was characterized by X-ray single crystal diffraction. The density of the compound was determined by automatic densitometer. The thermal decomposition temperature of ZXC-20 were recorded on a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The detonation parameters such as detonation velocity and detonation pressure of ZXC-20 were calculated by EXPLO5 v6.01. The results show that the crystal belongs to P-1 space group. Its cell parameters are a =10.620(6) Å, b =10.641(6) Å, c=16.549(12) Å, V=1524.5(16) Å3, Z=2, F(000)=788.0. The actual density of ZXC-20 is 1.912 g·cm-3 at 298 K. The thermal decomposition temperature is 333.76 ºC. The crystal belongs to P-1 space group. The theoretical detonation velocity and theoretical detonation pressure of ZXC-20 are 8070 m·s-1 and 29.5 GPa, respectively, which are better than TATB. ZXC-20 is a potential fluorine-containing heat-resistant explosive.